Cait (who posts at Light of Morn) recently asked about the gear I use for my landscape/mountain photography, so I’ll take her question as an opportunity to summarize what I use these days.
Camera: These days I’m lugging a Canon 5D digital SLR (DSLR) around. The 5D is a full frame DSLR, with 12 megapixel sensor that is essentially the same size as 35mm film. This provides certain advantages for my approach to photography: higher resolution for large prints, wide angle lenses are truly wide, smaller apertures are usable for DOF control, somewhat better dynamic range, better noise control. There are some downsides: cost is more than twice that of more common “crop sensor” DSLRs, size and weight are greater.
Lenses: I try not to succumb to Lens Fever, so I have a small set of good Canon lenses: EF 17-40mm f/4 L, EF 24-105mm f/4 IS L, EF 70-200mm f/4 L, and 50mm f/1.4. While I may take all four on some hikes, more often I take a subset. On pack trips where weight becomes a significant issue I take only the 17-40mm and the 24-105mm lenses.
Tripod: On shorter hiking trips (and car supported trips) I use a very large and relatively heavy carbon fiber Induro C313 tripod. This is generally too large for backpacking, so I substitute a smaller (though not exactly tiny) carbon fiber Velbon 540 “Carmagne” tripod that is lighter and packs more easily. I fit an Acratech Ballhead to whichever tripod I use. I do shoot handheld sometimes, but I almost always use the tripod for landscape work.
Packs: Like many photographers, I’m always looking for the perfect bag or pack – even though I know full well it doesn’t exist. I use a Lowepro Rover AW for longer day hikes, since it can carry my photo gear and enough general equipment and food/water for serious hiking. I’m fond of my Lowepro Slingshot 200 AW for shorter hikes and urban photography. When backpacking (and sometimes on longer day hikes when I’m heavily laden) I carry my camera in the Lowepro Topload AW bag with a chest harness.
Other stuff: I use a remote release (“cable release”) with tripod shots. I sometimes use a circular polarizing filter. I carry a bunch of extra memory cards and batteries when I’m out for a longer period of time.
As you can imagine, you need to be pretty committed to doing photography if you are going to carry all this stuff on the trail – and I’d forgive any of you who decide to go with something a lot lighter. Fortunately, you can do some very nice photography with less expensive and lighter gear.
Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Pentax all sell very nice crop sensor DSLRs these days. Because they use smaller sensors than my full frame 5D, the cameras can be smaller and smaller, lighter lenses will provide the same reach. The Canon Rebel XTi/400D (or the previous model, the Rebel XT/350D) with the 18-55mm kit lens can do a fine job. I’m sure that equivalent models from the other manufacturers are also quite excellent. Some of the smaller “point and shoot” cameras also perform well and can be quite small and light.
… On this trip I lost something which previously I never gave much of a second thought to and which I’ve since realized is one of the most critical components of my photographic arsenal. What could possibly be so key and why?
The answer — my cable release.
Keep in mind I’m not just talking about the impact of losing a piece of equipment. I’m talking about losing something that is an extension of ones mind and body critical to the creative process….
(Click his title link to read the full post at his blog.)
I understand. Not only about forgetting something, but about how important this silly little thing called a cable release is to the process of making a photograph. There is something about setting up the shot and then waiting, cable release in hand, as light changes, clouds move across the ridge, people move in and out of position… and you stand back or to the side of the camera watching and waiting… and holding the cable release.
In photography forums I often read posts that dismiss a lens because “it vignettes.” The assumption seems to be that really good lenses don’t vignette. I’m afraid that searching for lenses that don’t vignette is a hopeless quest.
Vignetting (or “fall-off”) in the corners of the frame is a fact of life with essentially all lenses. As I understand it, this is simply a condition that can’t be completely eliminated in the design of normal camera lenses – though there are ways to reduce it. So the question really is not “does my lens vignette?” It does. More useful questions are: “How much does the lens vignette?” and “How apparent is vignetting at different apertures?” and “How do the vignetting characteristics of this lens affect my photography?”
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 lens at f/1.4 and f/4
I have four excellent Canon lenses: 17-40mm f/4 L, 24-105mm f/4 IS L, 70-200mm f/4 L, and 50mm f/1.4 prime. I looked at all of them when I did my recent Full Frame Lens Test. I confirmed that all four can produce really excellent results… and that all four produce noticeable vignetting in certain circumstances, especially in test conditions. (Results posted at various lens test sites on the web will confirm this.)
But is this a problem? Generally, no – though it is important to understand the vignetting characteristics of your lenses if you want to take advantage of this characteristic when appropriate and minimize it when you don’t. The body you use also makes a big difference. Fall off from a given lens will be more visible on a full frame sensor than on a crop sensor.
Stopping down greatly reduces the effect with all of my lenses. On some of them (e.g. – the 50mm prime and the 70-200mm zoom) light fall off becomes very minor when stopped down just a bit. It does not diminish quite as quickly on the 24-105, and the 17-40 can show the effect at apertures as small as f/8, depending upon subject.
Given that vignetting is a fact of life, how can we deal with it? There are actually quite a few approachs that can be used individually or together in different situations.
Vignetting can often be effectively reduced or even eliminated in post processing. When necessary I use adjustments in ACR or Photoshop to reduce the effect.
Shooting at smaller apertures can minimize or virtually eliminate the effect. Since I often shoot from a tripod I tend to use slower shutter speeds at smaller apertures. Fortunately, full frame DSLR cameras can use smaller apertures than crop sensor cameras; at f/11 or f/16 vignetting effects are rarely visible.
In many situations vignetting is actually a pleasing effect. My theory is that vignetting often simulates the way we see with our eyes – we are more aware of objects in the center of our field of vision and less aware of those in peripheral areas. Vignetting can de-emphasize the peripheral area and draw attention to the center. (In some images I intentionally add a bit of vignetting for this purpose.)
Vignetting that is cleary visible when the subject is a perfectly uniform test target is often completely invisible in photographs of detailed subjects. In other words, the lens vignettes but you can’t see it. (This is a good illustration of the principle that what happens in photographs is more important than what happens in tests.)
So, vignetting is a fact of photographic life – for better or worse. Searching for a lens that does not vignette is hopeless. It makes a lot more sense to understand vignetting and learn how to work with the vignetting characteristics of your lenses.
(Note: This article was originally posted in 2007 and I should probably update the test using newer gear – though the point of the test and the post remains.)
Last month I wrote about a set of tests (“Full Frame Lens Test“) that I conducted with my lenses and my Canon 5D body. My object was simply to better understand how the camera/lens combinations would behave so that I could make better decisions about appropriate lenses and apertures while making photographs.
One discovery was that, compared to using a crop sensor DSLR, I can get excellent results when I shoot at smaller apertures with good lenses on the full frame body. I tended to avoid apertures smaller than about f/8 on the crop sensor camera, but there seems to be little or no real liability in using f/11 or even f/16 on full frame.
To illustrate I put together the following composite image. (The image appears in reduced form on this page. Click the link to see the full size version.)
A sequence of text photographs illustrating diffraction blur at several apertures on a full frame camera
The example includes five versions of a small section from near the center of a photograph taken with the Canon EOS 5D using the EF 24-105mm L IS lens at a 50mm focal length. The camera was on a tripod, MLU and a remote release were used, and the AF was turned off. The images are 100% crops – in other words, actual pixel size is displayed in these tiny excepts from the much larger original images. (You would virtually never view a print at this magnification. These are equivalent to tiny sections from a print that might be about 5 feet wide!) The images have been slightly sharpened in post-processing, but are otherwise unaltered.
I shot at apertures of f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, and f/16. In terms of the sharpness of this portion of the image, I am quite certain that all five examples are plenty sharp for making prints. That said, there are some differences. To my eye:
The f/4 and, to some extent, the f/5.6 versions are slightly but noticeably softer at this magnification.
The f/8 and f/11 versions seem to me to have approximately equal sharpness. Some parts of the f/8 image seem slightly sharper, but other parts of the f/11 image seem sharper. In the end they are pretty darn equivalent, though I’d maybe give the f/11 a very slight edge overall.
The f/16 image may be slightly less sharp than the f/8 and f/11 versions, but the difference would not be noticeable in a print, even a rather large one. In any case, f/16 appears sharper than either f/4 or f/5.6.
After doing this test I no longer hesitate to shoot at f/11 or f/16. Not only does this give me the possibility of getting greater depth of field when I need it, but it also means that I can compensate for corner softness on some lenses (e.g. the 17-40mm) by using a smaller aperture without fear of losing center sharpness.
(Addition: 4/23/07 – Other Canon L lenses seem to give similar results, including my 17-40mm f/4 L and my 70-200mm f/4 L.)
Added 2/23/08:
In response to a question in a photo forum I put together a sample image showing corner sharpness from the same original images used in the example above. (The earlier example shows 100% crops from near the center of the frame.)
(image temporarily unavailable)
Technical info: Shot using a Canon 5D with the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS lens at a 50mm focal length. In aperture priority mode, the aperture was changed manually between shots. Initial focus was with AF, which was then switched off before shooting the series. Camera was on a tripod and MLU and remote release were used. Shots were converted from RAW with ACR and no additional post-processing applied. Print made at this resolution would be approximately five feet wide. The crop is from the far lower left corner of the frame.
In addition to noting the softer image in the corner at f/4, also note that the image is a bit darker due to the expected increase in corner light fall-off (“vignetting”) at the largest aperture. Sharpest version in this series shot with a FF body seems to be at f/11 as in the center crop example above. But note that f/8, f/11, and f/16 are not very different in overall sharpness – and in the end any of these apertures would produce a very sharp print.
In response to another forum discussion, I have added another example, this time using the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 lens and showing performance at f/5.6, f/8, f/11, and f/16. In other respects the test is the same as described already in this post. This image is seen to the right and below.
(image temporarily unavailable)
Conclusions: Based on this set of images and other taken with different lenses under similar conditions, I have come to some conclusions that work for me with my Canon lenses and full-frame Canon 5D body.
In general the sharpest whole aperture seems to be around f/11.
It is very difficult to distinguish any resolution differences at f/8 or f/16 – there are subtle differences when viewing the test images at 100% magnification on my monitor but these are essentially invisible in prints.
f/5.6 or f/22 will tend to be a bit less sharp, though perhaps not for the same reasons. At f/5.6 I begin to notice a bit more of the diminished sharpness as a lens is opened up – more on some lenses than on others. At f/22 the effects of diffraction become just a bit more noticeable. However, if the shot demands it I do not hesitate (much) to use either of these apertures as the very slight decrease in sharpness is quite tiny if visible at all in a print and both provide some other advantages in certain situations. (I’ll even use the largest f/4 aperture on the test lens when isolating the subject is important or when low light demands it – and the results will typically be just fine.)
At larger apertures the performance becomes more tied to the particular lens so it is more difficult to make any generalizations beyond the fact that vignetting increases and sharpness will be less optimal.
The smaller apertures decrease any corner light fall-off (“vignetting”) or softness, generally to a point where both are insignificant.
With all of this in mind, unless I have a reason to select some other aperture I typically use f/11 as my general starting point when shooting with my full-frame DSLR body.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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